


Studies in Intimacy

by VivificanousPrime



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Fluff, Intimacy, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Oral Sex, Sensual Play, Sexual Interfacing, hand holding, implied prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:14:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29180841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VivificanousPrime/pseuds/VivificanousPrime
Summary: When Breakdown accidently purchases a night with the pretty red mech he met in a club, Knock Out is surprised to find himself charmed by the miner's kind nature. What began as a pleasant conversation gradually becomes a relationship neither could live without....Intimacy takes on many forms, and Knock Out and Breakdown plan to explore every option.
Relationships: Breakdown/Knock Out
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Studies in Intimacy

**Author's Note:**

> A sweet one-shot that details the pair's life on Velocitron long before the Autobots and Decepticons are formed. 
> 
> Heed the tags. I play more with the emotional aspects of intimacy, but fun stuff does happen.

It wasn’t very much. Shelves were littered with things that weren’t really his, the walls painted in meaningless rebellions, the lighting dimmed for financial convenience. There was a berth, a well-used thing that had seen its fair share of intimate moments, but it had no ownership of this.

He was a clueless thing, filled with nothing but laughter and awkwardly genuine smiles, but he was keen enough to know where lines were drawn without being told. He was a massive brute, but those lumbering shoulders slumped against the end of the berth in an unconscious effort to become smaller. He was an intense soul, but his gaze was so light for all that it shared.

Knock Out could feel himself falling. Into those golden eyes, into that lovely smile, into that free kindness. It made him wonder just what he’d done to deserve the night and what he’d have to do to earn more.

The blanket he had wrapped around himself slipped, and Knock Out fiddled with the edge of it as he mulled over the words. Lifting the cloth to return to its soft embrace, he asked quietly, “You know...you don’t need to pay every time you want to talk to me.”

Breakdown’s eyes widened impossibly, enough for the inner rims to become exposed. “What? I thought that’s what you do?” His helm shook in denial. “It’s okay, I can pay you.”

“I don’t get paid, for one,” he explained carefully, making sure his smile stayed pleasant. “And two, my job isn’t talking to people.” Letting his mouth stretch into a teasing grin, he sang, “This was all _just_ for you.”

There was no indication Breakdown was greatly affected by his tone, but his optics did relax. “So...we can hang out again?”

No thought was needed for that. “Of course. Would...would you like to see me again tomorrow?”

That smile returned, illuminating the room in a way nothing else could hope to compare to. “Yes! Where do you want to go? I’m not allowed to go very far away from the houses, but we could go watch the sunrise on the edge of town.”

“Sounds lovely,” Knock Out said, basking in that innocent glow.

It was a little thing. Really, it was. The smallest touch, more akin to a graze of plating, not enough to transfer paint. Nothing so insignificant should have made his spark spin so wildly.

But it had.

Knock Out rushed to collect himself, doing everything in his power not to visibly react or give his misstep away. It was entirely likely Breakdown hadn’t even noticed their hands had brushed. His were far larger, rougher, flaked and morphed by a lifetime of handling stone and metal.

They continued to walk down the street, side by side in a silence that blanketed them softly. He had to have imagined Breakdown’s hand twitching next to his. His spark had to be fantasizing the scene. But a thick digit tapped his gingerly, like it was asking for permission. He tapped back a hesitant affirmation. The digit caught on to his and wrapped around it.

Such a small act. As if he hadn’t curled his hands around more intimate aspects of a perfect stranger.

Breakdown didn’t change their pace, but his hand moved in a test of boundaries. Their linked digits swung between them once, and when Knock Out gave no indication of disdain, they did so again. Back and forth, they moved in sync. Back, forth, back, and forth.

One swing moved too fast and too hard, slipping his digit out of Breakdown’s hold. The poor guy stumbled like he was trying to stop, an apology on the edge of his glossa, but Knock Out caught him in a single, fluid motion. If he had any reservations concerning how he might fit against his larger companion, they were well and thwarted now. Breakdown’s hand slid into his like it was made to fill the space.

All the little irregularities along the coarsened mesh, Knock Out pressed his palm against them as if he thought there was any chance he could smooth what time and life had done. Breakdown didn’t seem to mind, seeing as his thumb found a place along the back of his hand.

No words were really needed, but Knock Out knew better than most Breakdown’s appreciation of gentle sounds. “You were right,” he sang, “it is a lovely day.”

It was more noticeable, now, those little changes in demeanor. There were always things that weighed on Knock Out, but his friend seemed to be holding on to something more. His hands had fidgeted, his gaze had fluttered away, his focus had been trapped by thoughts Breakdown couldn’t read.

But it all made sense once they returned to Knock Out’s room. Nervousness was not a familiar sight when it came to the confident mech, so Breakdown had been oblivious to the obvious. That needed to be corrected. Now, before Knock Out caught on to how clueless he was.

“You want me to make the hurt go away?”

Knock Out in-vented slowly as he considered. “Not...necessarily. That isn’t how it works.” He leaned back, letting his weight rest on hands planted behind him. “I want to try something.”

Not exactly a voice Breakdown had heard often. A hushed tone just above a whisper. The first time Knock Out had used it in front of him, his frame had twisted in a painfully pleasant way. Now, coupled with the visual, the sensation began to simmer in his middle. 

In a few short strides, he was standing over Knock Out, the smaller mech remaining in his stiff position on the edge of the berth. “Like what?” he asked, trying to mimic his friend’s tone, but his voice sounded more raspy than sexy even to his own audials.

Knock Out tipped a knee down in a hardly subtle move. “I want you to touch me.”

Obviously, but still, the simple request seemed off to him. “Is that okay? You get touched by a lot of people.” Breakdown cringed as the words tumbled out, unprocessed. He would have taken them all back, but Knock Out spoke up, a shy smile playing across his face.

“That’s work,” he waved away, throwing his head back casually. “I want to do something different, anyway.”

Nodding, Breakdown carefully dropped to his knees before Knock Out’s peds. He was rather tall, especially compared to his smaller companion, so he was still eye-level with Knock Out’s lower chest. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t look down, though.

Thankfully, Knock Out took the lead. His larger hands were taken in by smooth servos and directed to equally smooth thighs. “Just...wander.”

It might have been the proximity, or their position, or just the way Knock Out had said it, but something he couldn’t quite described stirred in him. The low feeling that simmered now grounded him to the spot. Were it not for Knock Out’s hands moving his, Breakdown might have remained frozen forever. The feeling of soft mesh beneath his palm fired off some circuit, moving his hands down along slender legs.

He needed to refocus. Knock Out was not his body, connected though they were. There were countless people who had the chance to hold such a beautiful soul and failed in doing so. Breakdown wanted no part of them.

Rising as fluently as his clunky stature would allow, Breakdown rested his forearms on the berth on either side of Knock Out’s hips. “Where do you want me to touch?”

There was a little part between Knock Out’s lip plates that grew as his optics widened. It didn’t fully leave when he relaxed and answered, “Anywhere that feels good.”

Breakdown shifted his weight to one arm so he could place his other’s palm against Knock Out’s hip. As gently as he could, he ran a digit down a thin seam and traced it up his middle. “Like this?”

Knock Out just hummed and leaned into the touch. His eyes began to flutter, though, as a seam was followed across his side and up his back. That little part remained, an insignificant feature given all that Knock Out was giving him, but it was the only thing Breakdown could focus on.

The frame in his hand slacked into his hold, letting him gingerly lay Knock Out down before him. That gave him the chance to hover, to move both hands along an exploration of a gorgeous person. But gravity took him elsewhere.

He had imagined what it might be like to press so closely to someone so important. He had imagined what it might be like to fit their forms together, to lay against each other. But no amount of dreaming prepared him for the jolt he felt pressing their lips together. Knock Out wasn’t as soft there. His mesh was plagued by tiny notches and groves others had left in him, so Breakdown did his best to smooth them out. Knock Out wouldn’t have lied if he thought what hurt him couldn’t be erased, but he might have been misguided.

Scrap everything else, Breakdown just wanted to prove him wrong.

Slowly, he moved, grinding his plating against Knock Out’s at an irregular pace until his friend corrected him. His hands found their way around a waist as a grip was secured around his shoulders. Knock Out trailed his slender hands down his arms, wrapping his digits around him just above the elbow.

Lifting just enough to separate, Breakdown grinned giddily. “Like this?”

That earned him a surprised chuckle. “Yes,” Knock Out breathed, then titled his helm slightly, exposing his neck cables. “Do that again, but here.”

Not one to disappoint, Breakdown lowered his face into the space between Knock Out’s shoulder and chin. He had to use his glossa to secure a cable in his mouth, a move that made the frame under his twitch. Not sure what exactly to do, he pressed his lip plates around it, letting it roll between the plating.

Almost immediately, Knock Out arched into him, causing that stirring to return, lower and with more insistence. Breakdown decided to ignore it in favor of his new goal.

His free hand glided across a flawless finish until it found the small of Knock Out’s back. There, it held the arched form he had taken. They weren’t completely flush against each other, but their fronts did brush, touching in rough caresses down their chassis and hips. Breakdown nearly bit down on the cable when slender legs slid up his sides and wrapped themselves around his waist. Hesitantly, they squeezed, as if to ask for permission to hug closer.

Releasing the cable, Breakdown pressed a chaste kiss to Knock Out’s jaw, encouraging the legs around him to bring their fronts fully together. There were still some spaces between them, places where they simply didn’t piece together. Yet.

“Where else?”

Knock Out reset his optics, gazing up at him like he was in a wonderous haze. The answer didn’t come in the form of words, though. Instead, his waist was squeezed harder as Knock Out pulled himself into a better position, capturing him in another kiss. This one had an added heat to it that Breakdown couldn’t quite figure out. It felt _good_ , though, so he gripped Knock Out’s back to tug them closer, moved as they kissed to incite little happy reactions.

It started slow and uncoordinated. They moved out of sync, grinding and kissing at two separate paces. That didn’t seem right, so Breakdown forced himself to pause, to watch, and to wait. Knock Out had mimicked him out of confusion, but he caught on to Breakdown’s need long before voice was given to it. He rocked merely as a display, letting Breakdown see the rhythm he was setting. It was easier to slip back in, to pull and be pulled, held and be held, as if they had planned to act as a single unit.

At some point, in the heat of it all, in the backdrop of cycling vents and involuntary moans, Breakdown had the realization that, if given the chance, he would bring Knock Out into himself. Consume him in all ways he could. So, he fell harder, pushing himself as far into Knock Out as his friend would allow.

At some point, in the midst of all of this, in the process of ignoring Knock Out’s still open array brushing against his cover, another thought occurred to him.

There was an art to kissing that Knock Out appeared to have mastered, a way of moving the mouth and glossa to work the mesh there. Breakdown’s memory and experience were lacking, so he pulled back enough to hold all of Knock Out in his view. The crimson mech was venting hard to cool his excited systems but looking up at him like he was the best thing in the world.

Breakdown tore himself away from the praising gaze. That wasn’t what he was looking for. He didn’t know much, but he knew for sure that every mech had two things. One of which, he had noted once much to Knock Out’s humor, looked a great deal like a mouth.

“That’d be lovely, yes.”

Breakdown glanced up to see Knock Out still staring at him, helm nodding firmly. “What is?”

“What you’re thinking,” Knock Out said with no small amount of sarcasm.

“Oh.” He glanced back down before sending Knock Out an unsure look. “What do I do?”

“Just like what you did here,” he sang, unwrapping a servo from Breakdown’s shoulder to trace a long digit across his lips and achingly trail down to his neck cables. The touch left a pleasant tingle in its path that spread throughout his body, pooling somewhere low in his core.

That was explanation and permission enough for Breakdown to relinquish his hold on Knock Out’s back and shift to the end of the berth. He stopped once Knock Out’s knees were tucked in his underarms, his hands drifting to hold slim hips.

Staring down the frame of someone who meant more to him than words could possibly describe, Breakdown couldn’t help but wonder if the notches and marks etched into Knock Out’s lips would be found here as well. His friend seemed to think that kissing here would be just as pleasant, but Breakdown knew, at least to a small extent, what usually happened to someone’s valve.

He shut his eyes, willing his thoughts to cooperate. The goal was still to rid Knock Out of scars left by the blind fools that handled him. He would kiss the pain away here as he did any other part of this beautiful person.

More than ever, he needed Knock Out to know that. Words often got in his way, though, so Breakdown just rose again until that handsome white face was within reach. Gently as he could, he blanketed each of Knock Out’s eyes with a kiss. The sounds of vents seemed to halt as time allowed them a long moment.

“I trust you,” Knock Out whispered, forcing the world to begin again.

A small admission, but one Breakdown was not about to take lightly. Moving back down, he didn’t allow another moment of thought.

He had no idea if he was right or not. The moment he pressed his lips against Knock Out, a silence held itself around them like a shield. Hands found a place around his short audial horns and yanked, pulling him harder into the kiss. Legs spread wider as peds wrapped around him, holding his frame in place. Breakdown closed his eyes and let himself be moved as he moved. There wasn’t a thought in his mind to the people who came before him or those destined to interject themselves in the future. He’d never had the chance for such closeness, to enact such pleasantries, or to kiss so lovingly.

They danced in sync, twisting and pulling and pushing to a rhythm Knock Out set and sang to. It was a song Breakdown meant to memorize, but there was more to take in than he could fully process. All he could really do was open himself to all that was his lover. Press here, lean away there, back and forth slide across soft mesh slicked by attention.

There was no part of him that actually knew what he was doing. They were building to something, chasing some feeling akin to the one welling in his core and twisting at his insides, but it was nothing Breakdown could name.

What he did know was that Knock Out was thrown further into ecstasy with every kiss he left. That when the fall came, it was a sight like no other to watch a being so confident surrender to a sensation he had caused. That there was a glow about the optics when fading from a high. That there was beauty not just in the way the crimson frame could stretch and arch, but in the little gap formed by white lips.

Knock Out tried to tell him something, but static clouded his voice. Breakdown rose to meet him, anyway, hovering just above him. “Like that?” he teased, no small amount of pride mixing with his own frame’s heat.

It was a small smile, but one Breakdown was sure to commit to memory. “Come here,” Knock Out whispered, a hand reaching to clasp his chin and drag him down.

“My face feels filthy,” he protested, not in any way wanting to defy Knock Out’s adamant rules about maintaining his appearance.

“This is no filthy thing.”

Breakdown was prepared to argue, knowing full and well his face was covered in fluids, but there was a soft glint in Knock Out’s eyes that held it at bay and beckoned him to follow.

It was easier, this time, to fall into one another, to press together like they were made to fill each other’s spaces. For a brief moment, they parted, but only so Knock Out could pull his audial close and whisper, “This is lovely.”

It was a normal evening. The sun descended behind the horizon’s rolling mountains to let the stars dance across the darkening sky. A perfectly average event, but for its sheer beauty, it was hailed as something momentous.

Breakdown’s smile was no different. He gave himself so freely to perfect strangers, but still that soft expression did wonders to Knock Out’s resolve.

“What?” he asked, trying to hide that his spark was spinning.

“Nothing,” Breakdown teased, still beaming at him. “You’re prettier.”

He quirked a brow at that. “Than a sunset?”

His smile grew, and orange cheeks tinted deeper by the warm colors crawling across the sky. “You kinda look like it, too.” Lifting the hand he held, Breakdown pulled his arm closer to press a kiss to the outer plating of his forearm. “Prettier, brighter, and redder.”

A laugh escaped him, bending him over until his face smooshed against Breakdown’s chest. “You’re pretty, too.”

“No, I’m not,” Breakdown argued, the words broken up by a giggle.

Of course, he thought so lowly of himself. Knock Out threw his helm back so he could see that handsome face and brilliant smile. There was nothing else to say that he hadn’t already to change Breakdown’s mind. Besides, words were never his lover’s forte.

Snaking an arm around his thick neck, Knock Out adjusted his position on Breakdown’s lap to give himself a better vantage point. With a grace and ease that came with practice and time, their mouths slid into one another’s. A dance ensued, a game of pulling and holding and touching that engaged their cooling systems and flushed their frames.

“Breakdown,” he whispered, pausing to be kissed again, “I want you.”

“I want you, too,” Breakdown admitted as he hugged their frames impossibly closer.

Well, not exactly _impossibly_. There were other aspects of proximity. Such things were usually transactions of the practical kind, but moments with Breakdown were holistically different. The gaze was weighted and glowed. The touches were softer and kinder. The dance was slow and building to something Knock Out couldn’t begin to name.

Whatever they were chasing, he wanted it. More than sight, more than life, more than physicality would allow.

“I _want_ you,” Knock Out reiterated. “All of you. And I’d give you all of me.”

Breakdown made a pleasant sound and buried his face in his neck cables. “All of you,” he echoed, voice muffled and ghosting through the sensitive cables. “I trust you. Whatever you want—”

“Just you,” he interrupted. Clinging to Breakdown’s shoulders, he ground himself into the larger frame.

The miner grunted like he was fighting for the ability to speak. “You have me already.”

Knock Out let the cover to his array fold away.

That was cue enough for Breakdown to finally understand. There was a moment of calm filled with the sounds of puffing vents where he thought over what to do. In time, Knock Out heard the familiar clicking sound.

The moment gave him a chance to think, as well. Breakdown, he knew, had no experience here. But that hadn’t stopped him from acting before. Knock Out had considered how best to proceed, yes, but all thought was thrown away once he felt Breakdown underneath him.

He fell, hard and with little control. Breakdown caught him, though, and they slid into one another as if some divine power had forged every aspect of their forms to fit against each other. Time stilled, freezing the sun in just the right place to bathe Breakdown in a gorgeous golden light that hardly rivaled the glow of his optics. Knock Out stayed in that silence moment as long as he could.

There were many tricks to this game he knew, but the idea of applying them here faded away with the scenery. Breakdown was not a customer. He wasn’t a stranger who meant less to him than dirt.

No, this was his friend, his lover, his primary source of life itself. The goal here was not to tease or to play pretend. He wanted to _give_ himself in a way no other intimate means would allow.

So, he stilled himself, letting Breakdown process where they were in relation to each other. Only once his lover’s frame relaxed and a chaste kiss was placed on his lips did Knock Out take it all in. To be impaled was usually a painful thing, but like everything with Breakdown, this was easy. One of them moaned into the kiss as Knock Out shifted his hips for a better purchase. The move allowed his insides to be pleasured in a magnificent way that had him biting down on Breakdown’s lip.

Eventually, Breakdown moved, pushing himself into him before relaxing back in a test of what he could do. Knock Out steeled himself and rocked in an effort to set something resembling a pace. His attempt left Breakdown gasping and unable to hold himself up any longer. As he leaned back to lie on the ground, Knock Out followed after him. They had separated slightly, so he quickly made to correct this. Gripping long digits into Breakdown’s thick chest, he pushed down until sensors deep within him were breached.

Breakdown’s hands clutched his slender hips, pulling them down as he fought against gravity to keep them as close as possible. Knock Out waited for him to relearn how to cycle his vents before leaning down and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Like this?”

It wasn’t quite a laugh, more like a cross between a groan and a throaty chuckle, but it brought a smile to Knock Out’s face all the same.

A dance ensued. One following the steps he had been taught, the other innately moving to the song being played. They came to meet somewhere in the middle, the first surrendering to the moment as the second picked up on the tempo.

Knock Out had once been told by a mech with a crooked grin that his innocence had died long ago, murdered by the first of many acts that defined his line of work. The idea that he was broken had stayed with him since, but what it meant to be innocent remained elusive. That was until he met Breakdown. Those soft gazes and admiring smiles had twisted his spark for as long as he maintained that he was some corrupting force. But, perhaps this act was more complicated than that mech had realized.

Because he hadn’t lied all those orns ago. To be kissed so intimately by Breakdown was bliss in its purest form. To be held by coarse hands was the softest of graces. And to be filled by him in the most pleasurably ways was as passionate as laughing together on the floor of his room.

The song Breakdown began to sing was one of ecstasy and vocation. As they moved in a joint effort to become one being, to eat one another whole, Knock Out basked in the sweetest of sounds and searched for some way to convey what this was. If there was an adequate word, he either hadn’t learned it or was greatly misguided on the meanings of things. Because as sure as he knew he would kill for the chance to see Breakdown every day of his life, he was certain this act was innocence itself.

They crashed into one another as the last of the sunlight faded. Suffocated in each other’s heat, their frames surrendered to a moment Knock Out fought hard to prolong. Breakdown’s hands had grasped at him, pulling with all that he had to keep them in that heightened peak of proximity in spite of time’s forward persistence.

Their vents cycled in sync as they laid on the ground, blanketed by the emerging darkness, neither willing to part.

“How long do you think?” Breakdown huffed, voiced sounding as exhausted as his frame felt. When Knock Out just hummed for clarification, he ex-vented hard to collect his thoughts. “Till we need to be back?”

“Oh,” Knock Out muttered. Reality was hardly something he wanted to consider, so he smooshed his face into Breakdown’s chest instead.

His body shook as Breakdown chuckled, causing several sensitive areas to fire off excitedly. “Maybe...maybe long enough to do it again?”

Now that, he had no trouble answering. Sitting up so he was settled perfectly to straddle the frame beneath him, Knock Out grinned. “I’d like nothing more.” With a quick glance up at the sky, though, his spark fell heavy into disappointment. “People have probably noticed we’re gone by now.”

Breakdown pouted, a little motion that no one else would likely have notice, especially in the dark, but it pulled at Knock Out’s resolve. “Probably,” Breakdown muttered. His gaze ran up and down Knock Out’s frame, golden optics bright and showering him in a comforting light. A light smile played across his features. “What?”

Knock Out shook his helm to rid himself of whatever daze he had fallen into. “Nothing,” he waved away. Leaning down until he could press his mouth to Breakdown’s eyes, he left little kisses on the lids of those golden orbs. “You’re just lovely.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! All of my work exists in the same storyline, and I currently have two other works on this pairing.  
> I live for feedback, so let me know what you think! 
> 
> Have a great day!


End file.
